After ninety minutes of back breaking weeding among the perennials, I had to do something else when I finished. There is a great satisfaction in weeding at this time of year, whatever you dig out may never come back or have the time to come back and establish itself before the first frosts. There is a greater joy though in planting out something you have sown, potted on and hardened off. Earlier in the month, this weed infested patch was cleared and today I planted it up.

Cabbage Frostie F1 in staggered rows

The Cabbage was planted twelve inches apart, with twelve inches between rows. Canes were put up for netting but I then discovered we didn't have netting large enough to cover this bed. Instead I have opted for slug control and plastic bottles on the canes to ward off birds with the occasional rattle as the wind passes. We have plenty of wind at this time of year and the bird population is dropping off now, most of them have headed south or have been blown south regardless of whether they wanted to go there or not.

A bird scarer in action, no birds to be seen

The Kale was planted eighteen inches apart, with eighteen inches between rows. Kale needs more room to get growing and produce wide, stocky plants.

Kale Nero di Toscana and homemade bird scarers

As rain was forecast for the night and as I write this, it is raining, I did not water them in. Maybe I was a little lazy but after clearing two large beds of weeds, having planted out over one hundred plants and having fought a pile of netting that had delusions it was an attacking octopus, I decided to call it quits and went for a leisurely, bog infested foraging stroll with Carol and Little D.